


Hunter’s Moon

by HircinesHuntingGround



Category: Elder Scrolls
Genre: Gen, Hunter - Freeform, Hunters, Hunting, The Hunt, The Hunting Grounds, The Main character is dead, Werewolves, ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ, ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-01-30 17:15:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21431842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HircinesHuntingGround/pseuds/HircinesHuntingGround
Summary: Hjalti wakes up in the Hunting Grounds after his death. He must prove himself worthy to his Lord.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 7
Collections: Mother of Hunters collection





	1. Chapter 1

No. No. No. No no! Nonononono! This… this couldn’t happen. This didn’t happen! I won’t believe this. I can’t. I just can’t. I’ll wake up and it’ll be a horrid dream. Terrible horrible dream. Brought on by the beast blood. Yes. The beast blood. The blessing from my master. The blessing from Lord Hircine. It drives us all to hunt especially at night. I’ve been up for too long. I just… I need a tonic when I wake up. This will all be a dream.

I need this to all be over. Keldic. Brynja. They’ll be okay when I wake up. Keldic will be asleep. Brynja will be making breakfast. I need to feel our new child when I wake up. Powerful kicks in her stomach. 

I’ll wake up and everything will be okay. Normal.

“I need you to wake up, my child. My hunter.”

My eyes fluttered open. I only saw part of the world around me, as usual. Green? Was it spring already? I thought it snowed before… It was winter.

It…

It wasn’t a dream.

Keldic. Brynja.

No. No. No!

I yelled out. I screamed. I rolled over and heaved. Nothing came up. Nothing but bile. Foam. Blood. Was that blood? I felt an ache in my chest. Pain searing through my ribs. My side. I looked down. I didn’t have that scar before. I traced over the new scar over my chest.

What happened? Bandits? Werewolf hunters? Keldic and Brynja were innocent.

It’s all my fault.

I heaved again. Nothing but bile.

I helped myself up to my feet and looked around again. I wobbled. Green grass. Green trees. I inhaled the sweet grass around me. The wildlife around me. There were other werebeasts around. I could feel them. Smell them. Not just wolves. Lions. Bears. A boar? Was that a reptile? They’re so far away.

I turned when I heard footsteps behind me. A woman? Long black hair. I didn’t smell her. No scent? Weird. The tallest Nord woman I’d seen… Taller than me… 

Pain seared through my head. A pressure. I put my hands to my face. A voice.

_ ‘Apologies, hunter. What is your name?’ _

Telepathy? I opened my mouth. Do I speak normally? I watched as her shoulders shook with silent laughter. “Hjalti.... Is my name.” I said softly.

_ ‘I am Adelina. Mother of Hunters to you mortals. This is the only way I can talk and I apologize for the intrusion. And only to my hunters can I communicate freely.’  _ She walked over. Her hands grazed across my scars. The ones from when I was attacked by another beast. Before I become infected. No. Blessed. I looked into her dark eyes. Was she really the mortal that had bested Lord Hircine?  _ ‘You have a lot of questions… very chatty. But,’ _ she put her hand over my heart, _ ‘very sad. There’s a wound here that I cannot heal.’ _ I felt the sudden need to shift once she touched me. The urge to obey her every command.

“I am in the Hunting Grounds?” She nodded at my question, her eyebrows knitted together as if she felt my pain. I felt a knot in my throat. Tears welled in my eyes. Curse Oblivion! Here I was nearing my fourth decade and crying. In front of a deity. In front of the Mother of Hunters. Shameful.

I rubbed my temples as the tears fell. I let the change take over. Turned into the massive beast I felt the most free. A howl. My own. Out of sorrow.

_ ‘Hunt. My child. Bring me a hare. At our lord’s altar.’ _ She disappeared before I shifted. 

A hare? What kind of hare? A literal hare? Was this a test? Or a trap?


	2. Chapter 2

I dropped a dead hare on an altar I had passed by earlier. I shivered once the shift was over, feeling the cold breeze on my bare skin. She approached. Silently. Still no scent. If I hadn’t seen her, I wouldn’t have known she was there.

I wiped the blood off my face. Off my beard. I looked around. No clothing.

_ ‘Caught a wily hare and brought it back before your shift was over?’  _ She tapped her chin and walked over, inspecting the kill. 

I backed away, giving her space. I saw how she was able to best Lord Hircine. The amount of muscle. She was a powerful predator even in her mortal form. The way she commanded the area, without a voice. She looked at me. Her dark eyes pierced straight through me. I would not want to face her in a hunt.

_ ‘I never bested our Lord Hircine. Barely survived the Hunt called on me.’ _

“The stories…”

_ ‘Let the mortals write what they want. I’m telling you… I only survived. Lord Hircine let me live when the sun rose on my final night. Ending his hunt.’  _

“No.” I shook my head in disbelief. He wouldn’t let such prey get away.

_ ‘Think, my child. I am still here.’ _ Her shoulders shook with a silent laugh.  _ ‘I did say hare and you brought a hare within your shift time…’ _

I looked over the hare. I took liberty with the loose meaning of hare. I fear my personality would now get the best of me here. “If I was meant to kill another beast, I can. I can hunt in this form as well.”

She tapped her finger to her chin. ‘ _ Let me think for a bit. I’ll convene with Lord Hircine. I think you show promise. Go enjoy the Hunting Grounds. They are your home now. I will find you when I’ve made my decision. And don’t worry, I can find everyone in the Hunting Ground, almost better than my Lord Husband.’ _

Husband? I watched as she shifted, shredding her clothing. She made a huff at me and then tore through the forest behind me. I watched until I could no longer see her with my one seeing eye. Enjoy the Hunting Grounds? Finding clothing would be first.

I looked around. Forest and fields laid before me and behind me. All around me. It’s breathtaking. I only wish Brynja and Keldic could’ve been here. I felt a knot in my throat. No. I wiped my face off. No more crying. Brynja would not want me to cry. And I hoped wherever she was, Sovngarde or anywhere else, Keldic would be with her? I hoped they were together. That’s all I could ask for. 

I turned when a scent hit my nose. Another wolf.

“Mother of Hunters found ya first, eh?” A large Nord man walked from the forest. A leather water pouch in one hand and leather pants in the other. Peace offering? “Name’s Kristjan.”

“Hjalti.” I rubbed my arms, eyeing the pants.

Kristjan laughed and threw the pants in my direction. “What did you bring to the Mother? Some mighty beast for sure, eh?” He leaned against the tree and started to mess with the beads in his dread hair.

I quickly put the pants on. I’d need a shirt too, but pants are better than being stark naked at this point. “A hare like she had asked….”

The other Nord blinked. “Truly… a small hare?” He guffawed. 

“She asked for a hare and didn’t specify.”

“That’s good, no.” He let out a loud laugh. “You come face to face with the woman that bested Lord Hircine and beat the absolute dung out of us all… and you bring her a hare? I like you. Would you like to meet the others? Well, at least the ones that like to hang around with Gunnar and me?”

I nodded. “Is the Mother of Hunters truly married to the Lord Huntsman?” I asked as I followed after him.

“Well, as married as a Daedric Prince can be I suppose?” Kristjan scratched at his short beard. “They’ve been together since she won the Great Hunt in the First Era.” He shrugged.

“But the books...”

“Snooty mages have a lot to write about and half of it ain’t even true. Mother Adelina hardly leaves the grounds. Though there was this time when she helped this other god? And when one of her sons had run off to escape the twin terrors…. If you run into Meena or Moira, just run okay?”

“Kids?”

“They have four.”

“So many…. There are no books or poems… a lot of demiprinces….”

“You might get along with Mischa then if you’re a bookworm…” Kristjan started walking towards the forest and eventually on a gamepath. I followed. “Keep your wits about you…”

I smelled new scents. Wood. Earth. Burning herbs. Two wolves. A bear. A cat. I stepped out of the brush and into a camp. Two Nords passed a pipe between each other. A wood elf looked in my direction. I noticed her milky eyes. I swear she could see me. I couldn’t see the person who was a werecat. 

“Ya brought us new meat? Smells too old. Overripe. Couldn’t’ve brought someone young n tender for me?” The wood elf grinned

“He’s younger than your old ass, Nilara.” I looked up at the voice from above. The werecat. Definitely a woman. Breton? No, too barbaric for that. Reachmen?

Kristjan cleared his throat. “This is Kolfreyja, Gunnar, Nilara, and Saoirse is the one in the tree.” He introduced them to me. I nodded to each of them. “This is Hjalti.”

“So this is the young one that Adelina was talking about….” The older Nord woman looked me over, puffing on the pipe. “Well, I supposed if she thinks you can join us I won’t argue…”

“Join you?” What are they talking about? I shook my head.

“You and Adelina didn’t tell him a thing…” The other Nord man sighed. He rubbed his bald head. “I swear…. if she weren’t….”

“Adelina, the Mother of Hunters, you mortals so endearingly call her… she wants you to join her elite pack. We lost our sixth member in another hunt.”

I pointed to myself. “Me? I…”

“She saw something in you. She saw something in us all.” Kolfreya puffed on the pipe.

“She ain’t gonna force ya… it is the Lord’s Huntin’ Grounds. Not Adelina’s…” The wood Elf looked at me again. “But, it’s a privilege. N we have the chance ta hunt beside Adelina and the Lord…. It’d be a shame if ya turnt it down.”

“I’ll need to think about it. I haven’t done anything remarkable with my life….” I scratched my face. I was unsure. There had to be a mistake. There was no way I could be an elite hunter.


End file.
